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As a small business owner playing the SERP game, you need the best SEO tools to compete and outrank your competitors.
With the right tools, strategies, and executions, you can improve your search visibility, increase awareness, and generate more leads and sales.
But there’s a problem. Many popular SEO tools are already in the market, and several new players are developing affordable SEO tools and features.
This can be a problem when determining which SEO software is the right one for your needs.
Without guidance, proper research, and prior knowledge of the SEO tools, you could end up subscribing to a tool that doesn’t fit your needs and budget.
So, in this post, you’ll find tools I have personally used that have helped improve search visibility, and I can vouch for them.
You will find tools for the following SEO tasks and more on this list. You will even find tools for black hat SEO tactics.
Now, let’s explore the list of…
You will find the best search engine optimization tools on this list.
From technical SEO audit, content marketing, audience insights, and competitive analysis to off-page SEO and website optimization, here are some popular SEO tools in 2024.
Quickly check through the table if you need to jump to a tool in the list of top SEO tools for small business owners. I have made the table easier to navigate, as you can check by a tool function, name, or category.
Category | Tool | Description |
---|---|---|
All-in-one SEO | Semrush | An All-in-one toolkit for digital marketing professionals, providing tools for SEO, PPC, content, and more. |
SEO Tool | SEO Powersuite | A comprehensive SEO software includes rank tracking, site auditing, link building, competitive analysis, and more. |
Content Optimization | Surfer SEO | SEO tool for content optimization, providing insights to improve on-page SEO. |
Chrome Extension | MozBar | SEO toolbar that provides instant metrics while viewing any page. |
Keyword Tracking | Pro Rank Tracker | A comprehensive cache plugin for speeding up your WordPress site and its performance. |
WordPress Cache | WP Rocket | Web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic. |
All-in-one SEO | SE Ranking | All-in-one SEO platform offering tools for rank tracking, site auditing, backlink checker, and more. |
WordPress SEO | AIOSEO | WordPress plugin for on-page SEO optimization. |
Backlink Analysis | Link Research Tools | It helps identify and remove bad backlinks. |
All-in-one SEO | Ahrefs | SEO toolset includes site explorer, keyword explorer, banklink checker, and content explorer. |
Link Audit | Remove’em | Web analytics service tGoogle offers a web track and reports website traffic. |
Outreach & Relationship | BuzzStream | CRM tool for managing and streamlining outreach efforts. |
Website Analytics | Google Analytics | It helps identify potential Google penalties affecting a website’s search ranking. |
Technical SEO | Google Search Console | Web service by Google that allows webmasters to check indexing status and optimize visibility. |
Content Marketing/Idea | BuzzSumo | Tool for discovering popular content and influencers in a specific topic. |
Backlink Analysis | Linkody | Backlink tracking and monitoring tool. |
WordPress SEO | Yoast SEO Plugin | Popular WordPress plugin for on-page SEO and content optimization. |
Website Performance Optimization | GTmetrix | Website performance testing tool that provides actionable recommendations. |
SERP Analysis | SERPFox | SERP tracking tool for monitoring keyword rankings. |
Content Optimization | nTopic | Content relevancy tool for optimizing content for specific topics. |
Keyword Suggestions | Ubersuggest | Keyword research tool for generating ideas and analyzing competition. |
Technical SEO | Website Penalty Indicator | Helps identify potential Google penalties affecting a website’s search ranking. |
Backlink Analysis | Moz Link Explorer | Tool for checking backlinks, domain authority, and page authority. |
Keyword Research | Google Keyword Planner | Google’s tool for keyword research and ad campaign planning. |
Keyword Research | KeywordTool.Io | Tool for generating keyword ideas for SEO and content marketing. |
SEO Powersuite is a desktop-based SEO Software. There are four toolkits in the bundle package.
Each software handles specific SEO tasks but complements each other to provide a complete one-stop solution to all your search engine optimization tasks.
Link-Assistant is the SEO Powersuite backlinks analysis, research, and link-building tool. It offers six blogger outreach modules, and you can automate every process from the app.
Website Auditor is an on-page SEO analysis tool that crawls your site for technical SEO errors and provides recommendation fixes. It is a potent site auditor tool. I use it regularly.
SEO Spyglass is a competitor analysis tool and backlink checker tool. With over 7.1 billion web pages crawled daily, it is a massive link index database.
With SEO Spyglass, you can see incoming link data and referring domains, analyze competitors’ link profiles, and discover potential growth opportunities.
Rank Tracker is one of the best rank-tracking and keyword tools today.
You can track keyword position for an exact location, track search engine rankings for different keywords and search engines, and analyze keyword performance at any time.
It offers 18 keyword research methods, including Keyword Gap, competitor’s keyword research, etc.
As one of the most popular search engine optimization tools worldwide, I have published posts featuring SEO Powersuite features, functions, and capabilities. Likewise, I have tested it with some of the top SEO tools like Semrush, SE Ranking, and more.
To help you decide which SEO tool is worth your time and gives the best value for money, check out my 4k-word review of Semrush versus SEO Powersuite. This post will help you learn which one you should consider and why.
Here are some of its helpful features worth mentioning here:
With the addition of regular new features, SEO Powersuite is one of the most up-to-date SEO software.
There are three licenses available on the website:
The forever-free license comes with feature limitations. But there is no time limit – use it for as long as possible.
If you’re an SEO agency managing limited resources, the Enterprise edition is one of the best budget-friendly SEO tools you should consider for your agency’s business.
It has many features and tools that make your business easier and more affordable for clients.
And I have good news: if you download through the link below, you’ll get 14-day access to the premium features of the SEO Power Suite software at no cost.
You don’t even need to enter payment details. Only an email address and your name.
Surfer SEO uses AI technology to analyze your content against search engine results’ top ten rankings.
It checks for over 500 on-page SEO signals, comparing your content with the search results.
Then, it suggests detailed instructions on how to optimize your content based on data-driving SEO metrics.
This allows you to model what’s already working for your competitors in SERP to build on an existing winning SEO strategy.
Use SEO Surfer to optimize existing content or new content. The SEO Audit tool is a powerful on-page checker that allows you to optimize your content and rank higher:
You can analyze your content for the following:
You don’t need to guess how to implement all these metrics in your content; the tool gives you directions.
It tells you what important search queries to add, whether to remove or add more content, and the average word count.
The Site Audit tool also looks for internal linking opportunities to pass SEO link juice to your important pages.
It will scan your existing articles and report-related posts, which your target page should link.
SERP Analyzer is a powerful competitor analysis tool that checks the first 50 URLs in organic results for your target keyword for over 500 SEO signals to give you detailed optimization reports for your focus keyword.
This saves you time and energy trying to guess what’s working. You can quickly find a winning formula for writing your next blog post.
SurferSEO now includes a 7-day free trial of its core features, which include keyword research and the content editor. If you need to experience the platform before deciding on a paid plan, consider subscribing to the free trial.
Hubspot SEO is an all-in-one SEO and marketing tool.
It lets you optimize your content for search by focusing on keywords that drive traffic and maximize your SEO effort. You get a list of keyword recommendations based on priority.
You can use the tool to learn which of your website’s pages need to be updated, see missing keywords, and how to optimize each page to improve its ranking potential.
Another highlight of HubSpot’s SEO tool is the content strategy tool.
It analyzes factors like content/topic relevance, competition, and popularity to suggest high-potential topics that resonate with your audience and search engines.
This means you can:
With HubSpot’s content strategy tool, you can build a targeted content strategy that attracts visitors, establishes your expertise, and ultimately drives business growth.
LarSEO is a new SEO tool I found very helpful for content research and optimization. It is a very helpful keyword research tool with various methods to refine your keyword strategies.
The tool lets you find content ideas by keyword or topic. You can build a massive list of content ideas by entering your seed topic or keyword.
Using LarSEO, you can quickly find long-tail keywords with autocomplete, build topical authority in your niche, explore thousands of topic ideas in a click, and extract keywords or URLs from any page or document.
With its Topic Builder functionality, you can clutter keywords in different hubs, allowing you to match the right search terms to relevant content.
LarSEO offers a free plan with 100 free credits monthly. You can access keyword finder, keyword builder, keyword extractor, and topic explorer. However, the free plan blocks access to keyword search volume and CPC (Cost per click) data.
The premium plan is available in three packages – Indie, Standard, and Professional.
The Indie plan costs $24 monthly, with a 2,000 monthly credit limit, and everything in the free plan. The standard plan costs $45.99 monthly, with 4,000 monthly credit limits.
The premium plan costs $77.99 monthly. You have everything in the Standard plan, plus you get up to 9,000 credits. You can add up to 10 websites to your projects.
To learn more about LarSEO pricing and feature access in each plan, you should check the pricing page.
Pro Rank Tracker is a position-tracking tool for keeping track of your ranking keywords in SERP.
The tools give you a clear picture of how your search terms perform in major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, and Amazon.
You can see reports for daily, weekly, and monthly changes in search terms for your website pages.
If you want to see the highest jump and most significant drop in keyword changes, you can see that in the Pro Rank Tracker.
The premium plan starts at $13.5/m for 100 keywords, and as you track more keywords, the price adjusts accordingly.
A free 30-day trial with all Pro Rank Tracker premium features is included. Sign up below to see how it can help your business.
WP Rocket is the best WordPress cache and speed optimization plugin used by over 3.7 million blogs. Its notable users include Neil Patel, Yoast, Elegant Theme, WP Engines, Bigcommerce, and more.
Page speed is integral to search engine optimization and user experience; you need a caching system that removes all the heavy lifting and does the job in one click.
That’s what WP Rocket is – straight out of the box; the plugin enables 80% optimization strategies to your WordPress blog.
There is no complex setup process; it only requires a few mouse clicks to get the plugin working on your blog.
You can choose from three standard licenses:
You should read the detailed review of WP Rocket and how it helps improve this blog page’s speed and performance.
SE Ranking is an all-in-one-SEO toolset that lets you do keyword research, site audit, off-page SEO, competitive research, track keyword position, and create branded white-label reports to show clients and teams.
SE Ranking is a good match if you’re looking for affordable SEO tools for beginners and Semrush alternatives.
The interface and the reporting are very similar. It analyzes and categorizes SEO data in an easy-to-understand table and report.
You can analyze SEO and keyword data from over 130 country databases, including the United States, and get great insight into your report.
There are other SEO tools, such as
SE Ranking is reasonably priced and offers different subscription plans. You can subscribe to a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, six-month, and annual plan.
Check out the complete pricing structure from the link below.
All-in-one-SEO is a WordPress plugin that allows you to optimize your website for search visibility.
Over 3,000,000 websites use it, and it is one of the Yoast SEO plugin’s strongest competitors.
Since Seyd Balhki of WP Beginners acquired it in 2020, many features and tools have been integrated into the plugin to make it one of the best SEO tools for WordPress sites.
Currently, it has more features than Yoast SEO.
AIOSE is compatible and integrates with popular services and tools such as Bing, Baidu, Yandex, Woocommerce, AMP plugin, Google, and more.
The setup wizard makes it easy for beginners to walk through the setup process without messing around with a complex setup.
The all-in-one SEO WordPress plugin is available for free download but has limited features and tools.
If you want the full power of the plugin, you need to subscribe to one of its premium plans:
Sitechecker Pro is a cloud-based all-in-one SEO platform designed to help small and medium-sized businesses with various aspects of search engine optimization.
It offers tools to manage on-page SEO, website monitoring, site audit, keyword rank tracking, and backlink analysis.
It is a powerful SEO tool suitable for agencies, large marketing teams, and businesses managing multiple website’s online visibility.
SiteChecker Pro allows SEOs to monitor search engine performance for several websites without limiting how much data you can export and user seats.
All SiteChecker Pro accounts allow you to grant project access to unlimited users. This is a helpful feature for agencies with hundreds of workers needing access to SEO tools to work on client sites. p
One thing about Sitechecker Pro is that there is no free plan; you need to commit to a paid subscription to use the platform. However, you have 48 hours to submit a refund request if you realize the platform is not for you.
Aside from that, the Basic plan costs $41 monthly, which allows for creating a maximum of 2 SEO projects. The data retention limit is 12 months, and a total of 1,000 pages you can monitor.
This plan suits a small marketing team with a client base or in-house SEO professionals.
Next is the Standard plan, which costs $166 per month. It gives you everything in the Basic plan plus additional features and access limits.
For example, you can monitor more pages, up to 10,000, instead of the 1k pages in the Basic plan. Also, the Standard plan gives you 500 credits, an upgrade from 200 in the Basic plan.
If your agency requires white-label features like a custom logo, email, and SEO report and sets the entire Site Checker app on a custom domain, you need to look into getting the Premium plan, which costs $333 every 30 days.
This plan allows you to monitor up to 50k website pages, track 4,000 keywords, and more. Check the button below for more details on the Site Checker Pro pricing.
These prices are for the 12-month billing cycle. Subscriptions to the monthly plans cost slightly more. The Basic plan costs $49 if you decide to pay month-to-month.
Mozbar is one of my favorite Google Chrome extensions. I can’t do without it. I use it daily.
Mozbar overviews SERP’s top-ranking pages and SEO metrics such as DA/PA and links profile. This gives you handy SEO information for link prospect outreach and content analysis.
Mozbar Google Chrome extension is one of the best free SEO tools. When installed and active, your Google search result page will have additional SEO features.
Compare the first search result below:
To this one:
Do you see the difference?
This is one of the market’s most complete, versatile link analysis tools.
Many features exist, from link building, link alert, contact finder, etc., to detecting Google penalty risk links.
This tool can check for potential link penalty issues on your website. So you can act quickly before Google pulls the Hammer.
Link Research Tool checks for over 150 link data for every link profile it analyzes. And over 25 link sources combined to analyze a single URL.
There are four subscription payment models and four plans to choose from.
However, there is a 7-day free trial of the SuperHero Small plan at $17. This gives you access to test the tools and learn how they work.
Many SEO professionals consider Ahrefs one of the best tools in the industry.
Ahrefs prides itself on being the complete, up-to-date best SEO tool with historical background marketing metrics dated as back as five years in the history of that web page.
It does a lot more than you can imagine.
This page won’t be enough to write about Ahrefs’ SEO features, benefits, and use cases. You need to see it yourself.
But here are a few to mention:
Ahrefs does not offer a free trial of its tools, so you can only subscribe to paid plans on the website.
Note the above prices are for the annual subscription. If you pay monthly, the price is up a bit.
Remove’em is abacklink monitoring, Google penalty recovery, and anchor text over-optimization tool.
The tool scans your site for keyword anchor text and brand mention and lets you know if you’re at risk of anchor text over-optimization penalty.
In its report, you don’t need to worry if the brand name appears over-optimized. This will be in red; don’t sweat over that. It is suitable for SEO, and Google loves that too.
Remove’em offers three standard subscription plans on the website:
The company also offers complete link-removal services if you’re an expert in cleaning up your bad links.
BuzzStream is a blogger outreach tool for finding link partners, influencer marketing, networking, and relationship building.
If you want to streamline your outreach strategy, automate tedious tasks, and send high-converting email messages, Buzzstream is the right tool.
Some BIG brands that use the tool for marketing outreach campaigns include 99designs, Canva, indeed, Seer, and more.
Buzzstream is built for small and large businesses. Whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or an agency, there is a plan that fits your needs and budget.
Buzzstream offers four standard plans plus a free 14-day trial period on each plan:
If you own a website/blog, you need Google Analytics.
I don’t need to start explaining why here; you need to see it for yourself.
The good part is that Google Analytics is a free SEO tool that works, and you don’t need paid analytics software for the same purpose. It has all the features, tools, and access to make it a must-have website analytics software.
If you want to know/understand where, how, when, what, and why – all about your website, look no further – Google Analytics is the best free SEO analytics tool.
Google Analytics lets you know what’s happening on your site – how people find you, traffic sources, landing pages, exit pages, time on site, user’s location, gender, new visitors vs. return users, pageviews, sessions, bounce rate, etc.
Google Analytics is a completely free SEO tool. You only need a Gmail account to log in and create your web property.
Formerly Google webmaster tools – if you run a website/blog, you need this tool, too.
Google Search Console is Google’s SEO tool for technical website audits. The tool lets you see errors that might prevent your website pages from indexing, ranking, and appearing for all SERP placements.
Google search console provides excellent insight into organic keyword ranking, position, impressions, search queries, top-performing pages, on-page errors, etc.
Google Search Console is a free search engine optimization tool.
Page Speed Insights is a testing tool that reports a web page’s desktop and mobile performance. It then provides recommendations on how to fix the issues affecting the page.
The tool uses two ways to diagnose a web page for page speed and performance tests – it collects lab and field data and compares it against hundreds of checks to provide its report.
This allows it to capture many real-world bottlenecks affecting page speed.
The test report is broken down into a few metrics:
Though some of its recommendations may not be possible to fix completely, such as third-party codes affecting performance, it is worth paying attention to its detailed report if you want to improve speed and provide a better user experience.
Undoubtedly, it is one of the best content analysis, influencer marketing, and discovery tools in the market.
BuzzSumo gives you access to the archives of more than 8 billion online articles.
You can research content ideas, find winning topics, publish high-performing articles, and get influencer contact details.
BuzzSumo offers a 30-day free trial and a forever free plan.
The free plan gives you access to limited content marketing and discovery features. You can subscribe to the 30-day trial plan via the web button below.
There are three standard subscription plans on the website:
Linkody is a backlink checker, management, and monitoring tool for link builders.
When a web page links to you or your link is removed, Linkody lets you know.
It also reports if incoming links point to a 404 error page on your site.
This allows you to fix the redirect and improves the user experience on your site.
Linkody is also a spy tool, i.e., it will email you when a competitor gets new backlinks so you can act fast to see if there are opportunities for you to tap into.
You can also use the tool to manage on-page SEO factors like title tags.
Linkody has five standard pricing options and 30-day free trial access. Check out the free access from the link below.
Yoast SEO is the industry’s #1 best tool for SEO WordPress.
WordPress users love it and already have over 5 million downloads, making it one of the most downloaded WordPress plugins ever.
Yoast SEO WordPress plugin has great SEO features like:
You can import SEO settings from other WordPress SEO plugins into Yoast for easy migration.
Unlike Google Page Speed Insight, GTMetrix is a page speed testing tool that analyzes the content of your web pages and reports on the average time it takes your page to load.
Then it presents possible recommendations on how to fix things up.
Like Google page speed insight, not every Gtmetrix recommendation you should take seriously.
This is because some things are completely out of your control (like modifying files that are not hosted on your server). Or script from third-party apps for tracking and data analysis, such as Google Analytics code.
And some are just generic recommendations that may not apply to your situation.
It does what it says better. SERPFox is a keyword-tracking tool, and I think it does that well.
Also, it provides you with links to the tracking articles on your blog, so you know which article ranked for the search term.
nTopic is more of an on-page SEO content optimization tool.
This simple tool scans through your content for word relevancy. Unnecessary words.
Then it provides possible content optimization suggestions for topical, relevant words that will likely increase your on-page SEO content optimization.
For simplicity, you can install a WordPress plugin and use nTopic in your text editor interface.
Also, you can instantly install a Google Chrome extension to analyze any web page for content and keyword relevancy.
Ubersuggest was previously a keyword research tool that tended to mimic the Google autocomplete suggestion tool. As the name implies, it is more of a keyword suggestion tool.
But after Neil Patel bought it in 2017, Ubersuggest has become a complete SEO analysis tool.
Now, Ubersuggest has an SEO audit tool, backlinks analysis, content analysis, keyword ideas tool, etc.
Neil Patel has continually improved the quality of the SEO tool by regularly adding more SEO features to compete against such as Ahrefs, Moz, SEO Powersuite, SE Ranking, etc.
I regularly use UberSuggest to analyze competitors’ backlinks. It is beneficial for uncovering competitors’ backlinks profiles that you can tap into.
If you’re unsure whether a Google algorithm update has hit your website, notice a sharp drop in your organic traffic.
This simple tool lets you discover exactly when the incident occurs so you know if you’ve been hit by any of the Google updates – Panda, Penguin, Mobile Friendly, Core updates, etc.
Link Explorer is Moz’s creation and one of the most reliable versatile backlink analysis tools on the planet today.
Moz Link Explorer will check how many inbound links a page has acquired in the last 90 days, total backlinks to the page, and domain root.
Also, it provides the page and domain authority of a URL.
This estimate of the SEO strength a given web page might possess to compete for organic search traffic.
Many SEO marketers would argue that Google’s free keyword research tool is not the best keyword research analysis tool out there.
The fact remains Google is the king when it comes to organic search traffic.
So, when Google offers you a tool that researches keyword databases – you’d better use it.
Keywordtool.io is one of my favorite free keyword research tools. Though, you’re limited to keyword research features in the free plan.
If you want to generate a list of related long-tail keywords you can target in your content, keyword.io is a helpful free keyword research tool.
Input your seed keyword, and the keyword tool will generate a list of long-tail keyword ideas you never thought of. It categories the result into 3 sections:
You can filter the search results by excluding negative keywords you don’t want. Run your keyword research using a particular search result type.
The tool provides keyword data like search volume, CPC estimate, keyword trend, and competition.
Since I started using Google Trends regularly, I have seen how helpful the keyword research tool can be. Google Trends is one of the free keyword research tools on the list.
Google trends help you understand the popularity of a search phrase over time.
It helps in knowing the trend curve of a given search phrase and its best use to discover search terms your target audience uses to find relevant information.
While I was writing the headline of this post.
I was faced with options to use “premium” or “paid” in the headline above.
So, I headed to Google Trends and typed in my search queries to compare which words had been used most for the past 12 months.
As you can see in the image below, the word “paid” is mainly used by users to search for paid SEO tools.
The word “premium” seems to be heading downwards, while “paid” is rising.
This is good for writing keyword-rich content that is well-optimized to meet users’ and the search engine’s interests.
You’re speaking the language of your users while optimizing for search engines, too.
Semrush is a household name in the SEO world and unarguably one of the top SEO tools in the industry. It is an all-in-one SEO and content marketing tool.
One of the few tools used by over 10 million SEO professionals and agencies worldwide, Semrush is a popular search engine optimization tool by any definition.
It is one of the best-paid SEO tools for small business owners and the top choice for BIG business websites such as eBay, Quora, HP, Booking.com, etc.
Semrush has SEO features such as:
Semrush might not be a good fit for everyone, especially if you’re a beginner with no SEO knowledge or on a tiny budget.
If your business generates a decent monthly income and you can afford an extra $119 monthly, the Pro plan is sufficient for small businesses.
It is worth mentioning here that Semrush has several tools that are worth the investment; one is keyword magic.
Keyword magic is the most powerful keyword research and analysis tool I ever used.
You can read my extensive review of the Semrush keyword magic tool tutorial here—a must-have keyword research tool for serious content marketers.
Semrush has three standard subscription plans. You can take the 7-day free trial of the Pro plan from the button below. It required Credit Card payment details and a $1 charge.
Many SEO tools today make it difficult to know which one is the best SEO tool for the job.
You don’t have to use them all. Pick one or two for a task and learn how to use them best.
Tools are meant to provide guidance and directions; you must try to make it work. You must consistently write quality content, engage your audience, and network with other marketers.
If your blog has existing content, you can start by rewriting and optimizing it for better search visibility. This might give you a quick boost in the search rather than starting to write a new piece of content from scratch.